Richmond can likewise become referred to as RIC (its airport code), or a, 804 (its area code), or even RVA, when most common colloquialisms for the city.

When of the 2000 census, the city of Richmond got the amount people of 197,790. The extra recent nose count estimate indicates that Richmond's people has grown to 201,384. Richmond was until recently called a Tertiary big city inside Virginia behind Norfolk and Virginia Beach, but these are today a for big, getting been overtaken in the endure nosecount by Chesapeake, whose population is in the area of 200,000.

History
Around 1607, King James I granted a royal charter to the Virginia Company of London to settle colonists around North America. When a number one lasting English settlement was established later that month at Jamestown, Captain Christopher Newport and Captain John Smith set sail ten times when landing at Jamestown, traveling north-west higher Powhatan's Flow of any stream (nowadays called a James River) to Powhatan Hill. a number 1 expedition consisted of Great hundred men from either Jamestown, & manufactured a number one attempt to settle at a Lessens of a James, placed between a 14th Street Bridge inside modern downtown Richmond & the Pony Pasture (a amateur metropolitan area along the banks of the flow of any stream south of the City of Richmond). A payout wwhen mass produced at this location as these are a greatest navigable places along a James Flow of any stream.

Revolutionary War
Around 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his famous “Give me Liberty or Give me Death� speech in St. John's Church, during the Second Virginia Convention. This speech is credited by having convincing members of the Home of Burgesses to pass the guide redeeming Virginia troops to the American Revolutionary War. Of these month late, in a throes of the Todays War, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.

Within 1780, Virginia’s state capital was moved from Williamsburg to Richmond. Inside 1781, under the command of Benedict Arnold, Richmond was burned by British troops. However Richmond shortly recovered, &, inside May 1782, was incorporated as a city.

Civil War
A aversion to the slave trade was growing per mid-nineteenth century, & inside 1848, Henry “pack� Brown processed history by with himself nailed into the little box & shipped from either Richmond to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, escaping slavery to the land of freedom.

At a irruption of the American Civil War in 1861, a strategical location of a Tredegar Iron Works was one of the primary factor the guide to produce Richmond the Capital of the Confederacy. From either this arsenal come a 723 piles of armor plating that covered a CSS Virginia, the world’s number one ironclad used in war, also as much of the Confederates' heavily ordnance machinery. Within 1861, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as President of the Confederate States of America. Of these year late Davis positioned Richmond under martial law. Both months when Davis’ inauguratiin, a Army of the confederacy fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and the Civil War experienced begun. A One week Battle followed inside June. 4 years late a home was seized per Union Army when Ulysses S. Grant captured Richmond in April 1865. Seven days late, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant ending the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse. Inside 1865, on Evacuation Sunday, big arethe of the city were destroyed inside a fire placed by retreating Confederate soldiers.

Monument Avenue was laid out it 1887, with a series of monuments at various intersections honoring the city's Confederate heroes. Involved (east to west) were J.E.B. Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Matthew F. Maury.

successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888. The intersection shown is at 8th & Broad Streets.]] Richmond experienced a number 1 successful electrically-powered trolley system in the United States. Intentional by electric power pioneer, Frank J. Sprague, the trolley system opened its first line in January, 1888. Richmond's hills, hanker the transport obstacle, were considered an idealistic proving ground. A newly technology shortly replaced horse-powered streetcars.

Twentieth century
Per beginning of a twentieth century, the city's people got reached 85,050.

Inside 1903, African-American businesswoman & financier Maggie L. Walker chartered St. Luke Penny Cost per diaper change Bank, & served when its number one president, too as a 1st female bank president in the United States. In todays world, a bank is known as a Consolidated Bank & Trust Company, & these are a oldest living African-Our contries bank in the U.S.

Within 1914, Richmond became the headquarters of the Fifth District of the Federal Reserve Bank. Inside 1919, at the prevent of World War I, Philip Morris was established in the city. A Fan territorial dominion as well began to grow when you took a 1920s.

As well when you took a 1920s, Richmond's entertainment venues began to acquire. A city's foremost radio station, WRVA, first began broadcasting around 1925. A Mosque as well opened inside 1925 (today these are known as a Landmark Theater). A Byrd Theater & Loew's Theater opened inside 1928 (the latter is okay, known as Carpenter Center).

Modern city development
Between 1963 and 1965, there was a brobdingnagian, "downtown boom," that led to the construction of other than 700 buildings in the city. Around 1968, Virginia Commonwealth University was created by the merger of the Medical College of Virginia with the Richmond Professional Institute.

Within 1984, the city completed the Diamond ballpark, a fresh house for the Richmond Braves, a AAA baseball team for the Atlanta Braves, replacing the old Parker Field. Around 1985, Sixth Street Marketplace, a downtown searching dominion, opened.

The multi-million dollar floodwall was completed within 1995, in order to protect a city & a Shockoe Bottom businesses from either a rising waters of the James Flow of any stream. As well in the period of 1995, a statue of Richmond indigene & lawn tennis star Arthur Ashe was added amid controversy to the illustrious series of statues of Confederate heroes of the Civil War in Monument Avenue.

Recent renovations involved a rebuilt James River and Kanawha Canal and Haxall Canal, now designed as a Canal Hike. A riverfront design has brought this Ace.Xxv-mile corridor back to life, by owning voguish loft flat, eating house, shops & hotels winding along a Canal Hike, along using cyanobacterial sail & walk-to tours. A National Park Service's Richmond Civil War Visitor Center, in the Tredegar Iron Works, brought three floors of exhibits & artefact, films, the bookstall, picnic ground & sir thomas more. the Cordish Company as well began construction of Riverside on the James, a power plant development design by having concidering & amusement venues.

Geography and Climate
Based on data from a United States Census Bureau, the city has the aggregate metropolitan area of 162.Zero km² (62.5 mi²). 155.Sise klick² (Lx.I mi²) of these are l& and Sixer.Quadruplet kilometre² (Two.V mi²) of these are water system. A sum locality is Trio.96% a river. A city is in the Piedmont region of Virginia, at the greatest navigatable point of the James Flow of any stream. A Piedmont vicinity is categorized by comparatively moo, rolling hills, & lies between a great, sea level tidewater region and a Blue Ridge mountains.

A Richmond—Petersburg Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), the 47th largest in the United States, includes the independent cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, Hopewell, and Petersburg, as well as a counties of Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William, Louisa, New Kent, Powhatan, Prince George, and Sussex. When of 2003, the number people of the Richmond—Petersburg MSA was 1,126,262.

Richmond is placed inside 200 miles of several major cities, including Newport News, Virginia (62 miles), Hampton, Virginia (73 miles), Portsmouth, Virginia (77 miles), Norfolk, Virginia (77 miles), Chesapeake, Virginia (87 miles), Alexandria, Virginia (91 miles), Washington DC (96 miles), Virginia Beach, Virginia (96 miles), Baltimore, Maryland (129 miles), Durham, North Carolina (132 miles), Roanoke, Virginia (137 miles), Raleigh, North Carolina (137 miles), Dover, Delaware (154 miles), Greensboro, North Carolina (166 miles), and Winston-Salem, North Carolina (183 miles).

Cityscape
a city is processed higher of a total of neighborhoods, including the Fan district, Oregon Hill, Shockoe Bottom, the West End and Church Hill – site of Patrick Henry's famous speech.

For supplementary data, look at Richmond neighborhoods.

Virtually all of the roads within the downtown metropolitan arethe come intended in a regular grid arrangement, by using alternating 1 way streets. Many major roads lead outbound from either a city, & come actually previous Indian trails, leading to more towns & web sites around Virginia. E.g., 3 Chopt Road, wwhen and then known as as it was an Indian trail marked by ternary chops in trees touching a trail. A major main road leading into a city of Richmond metropolitan area I-64 and I-95. I-195 forms an "inner loop" around a business district & fan districts of the city, & I-295, combined sustaining a Chippenham Parkway forms an "outer loop", or even bypass, in a area of the area. Virginia State Highway 288 connects I-64 and I-95 in a southwest quadrant of the metropolitan arethe to complete a staggered loop in the area of the city using I-295.

Ever since a number 1 electric automobile tramcar was installed around 1888, Richmond urban sprawl has been steadily expanding westward & southwards. Development along Monument Avenue and Broad Street have led to a most flush population moving farther & farther West, towards the section of the underground front yard called the West End.

Climate
Richmond has little joe distinct seasons. Spring arrives in April with mild times & cool nights, & by late May, the temperature has warmed higher substantially to herald warmly summertime times. Summer temperatures can be unpleasantly hot, typically topping Xc degrees by using high humidness. July is the wettest month. Times stay warmly to modest until October, when hurricanes are less belike & fall is marked by nights once again becoming super chilly. December and January are the coldest months. Lightly snow occur from either a prevent of November, but virtually all snow lessens inside January. Typical annually snow is Xiv inches.[http://www.noaa.gov/]

People and culture
Demographics
When of the censusof 2000, there are 197,79Population, 84,549 family, & 43,627 families living in the city. A population density is 1,271.3/km² (3,292.6/mi²). There are 92,282 housing units at an typical density of 593.1/km² (1,536.2/mi²). A racial makeup of the city is 38.30% White, 57.19% African American, 0.24% Native American, 1.25% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 1.49% from other races, and 1.46% from two or more races. Two.57% of the people are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 84,549 menage away from which Twenty-three.1% keep close at hand tikes under a age of Eighteen swallow the babies, Xxvii.1% come married couples living together, 20.4% have a female homeowner by having there is no married man present, & 48.4% come non-families. 37.6% of tons home come processed higher of souls & X.9% develop person dwelling alone world health organization is 65 years aged or even older. A typical menage size is Deuce.Twenty-one & a typical personal size is Two.95.

In a city the people is spread retired by using Twenty-one.8% under a age of Xviii, Long dozen.1% from either 18 to 2 dozen, 31.7% from either 25 to 44, Twenty.1% from either 45 to 64, & Thirteen.2% world health organization come 65 years aged or even older. A median age is 34 years. For each C females there are 87.Ace males. For each Hundred females age Xviii & terminated, there are 83.V males.

the median income for a menage in the city is $31,121, & the median income for a personal is $38,348. Males have a median income of $30,874 versus $25,880 for females. A per capita income for the city is $20,337. Xxi.4% of the people & Xvii.1% of families come beneath a poverty line. Away from a amount people, 32.9% of victims under a age of 18 & 15.8% of people 65 & older come residing in a image below the poverty level.

Tremendously of Richmond’s political & social history was influenced by its high society origins. In the 1920s, Ellen Glasgow and James Branch Cabell wrote novels that included thinly veiled mocking of elite group institutions prefer a FFV, a Commonwealth Club, & the Richmond German débutante dance. Possibly in todays world, Richmonders speak of “Come-heres� (carpetbaggers) versus “from-heres.� The unimaginative high society Richmonder attends St Catherine’s or even St. Christopher’s prep school, goes to college at Hampden-Sydney College or Longwood University, belongs to the Country Club of Virginia, takes summers polish off at a personal bungalow on the “Rivah,� and finds social outlets by attending benevolent balls or even serving on a boards for organizations such as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.

Annual cultural events and fairs
A city is page to many annual ethnical cases. When a capital of the commonwealth of Virginia, a state fair is held at a prevent of September at a state fairgrounds, in the city touching the Richmond International Raceway. Around November, a Suntrust Richmond Marathon & 8K Race is held downtown, & a James Flow of any stream Writers Festival likewise will require place. In a period of a year of December, a Grand Illumination requires place, where the buildings of the downtown front yard weak higher for the Christmas holiday season. This unremarkably requires place a equivalent weekend when a Richmond Christmas Parade, in Broad Street.

Around April, a Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K race is held, as well as the "Easter on Parade" street festival. A James Flow of any stream Film Festival as well requires place in a period of this year, & the VCU French Film Festival is also becoming super popular, & features foreign films.

More notability cases when you took a season include a Second Street Festival & a Carytown Watermelon Festival. A each month Artwalk will require place on the number 1 fri of every month between sept & june, in the downtown gallery territorial dominion.

Inside 2005, 2006, & 2007, Richmond may carrier a National Folk Festival.

Museums and historical attractions
Richmond has a important art community, & the Virginia Commonwealth University School of a Arts is consistently ranked when one of the right in the united states. Additionally to many art venues associated sustaining a university, there are as well several attractions nearby, including a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, a Richmond Symphony, & a Richmond Ballet. A Byrd Theater in Carytown is a classical cinema from either a 1920s era that still features pic regularly, & has turn into popular among a college student people, particularly due to its moo ticket price of $2.00.

A Science Museum of Virginia, is too placed in Broad Street touching a fan territory. These are housed in the neoclassical Union Station, designed by Beaux-Arts-trained John Russell Pope in 1919. Adjacent to the Science Museum is the Richmond Babies's Museum, the fun-filled museum for toddlers by owning numerous paws-in activities.

When a previous Capital of the Confederate State of America, Richmond is residence to several museums & battleground of the American Civil War. A Museum of the Confederacy, located touching a Virginia State Capitol & a MCV Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, it used to be that served when the White Home of the Confederacy, & in todays world features a wide kind of objects and lesson from either the era. Touching a riverfront is the Tredegar Iron Works and Civil War Battlefields National Park Visitors Center. There exists as well the Slave Trail along the flow of any stream likewise.

More historical points of interest include St. John's Church, a places of Patrick Henry's famous, "Give me liberty or give me death" speech, and the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, which features many of his writings and other things from his life, particularly when he lived in the city. A John Marshall House, the page of the previous Chief Justice of the United States, is also placed downtown & features numerous of his writings & objects from either his life. Hollywood Cemetery is also a necropolis of three U.S. Presidents as well as many other civil war officers and soldiers.

A city is besides house to numbers of monuments, virtually all notably many along Monument Avenue in the fan district. More monuments of interest in the city include the A.P. Hill monument, the Bill "Bojangles" Robinson monument, the Christopher Columbus monument, and the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument. A Virginia War Memorial is also placed around Belvedere touching a riverfront, & occurs as monument to Virginians that fought in World War II, the Korean War, and a Vietnam War. Set nigh Byrd Park is the noted World War I Memorial Carillon, a 56 bell carillion tower.

Richmond has periodically been known as the City of Churches. Early dominant influences were a Episcopalians and Methodists, but congregations of several faiths & denominations come rife now. Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was penned in Richmond by Thomas Jefferson.

Media
A local every day newspaper in Richmond is the Richmond Times-Dispatch. A Richmond Free Press covers the news from either the preponderantly African American perspective, and is particularly widely page through among a liberal crowd.

There are likewise many biweekly & semi-weekly publications, including [http://www.styleweekly.com Style Weekly], Wadi, Slate, & [http://www.rvamag.com/ RVA] (recently launched within April 2005). [http://www.richmond.com/ Richmond.Com] is an on the net newsmagazine sustaining the wide readership, & is the low presence of the monthly [http://www.richmondmagazine.com Richmond Magazine]. [http://www.punchlinemag.com/ Punchline], okay, defunct, was the popular alternative weekly newsprint magazine.

Richmond is besides served by many television & radio stations. Richmond's major network television affiliates include WTVR 6 (CBS), WRIC 8 (ABC), WWBT 12 (NBC), WCVE 23 and WCVW 57 (PBS), WRLH 35 (Fox), and WUPV 65 (UPN), when well as many moo power tv station.

Comcast is the primary cable television provider for the Richmond area. Inside Richmond city & a northern suburban counties, these are a successor to the franchise originally held by Continental Cablevision, so MediaOne, so AT&T Broadband, before Comcast acquired AT&T Broadband.

the arethe is too served by a kind of radio stations, serving a wide kind of musical theater & more interests. On the FM dial, some of the popular music stations include WRVQ-FM 94.Quint (Q94, Top 40), WKLR-FM 96.Quintuplet (A Planet, classic rock), WWUZ-FM 96.Ennead (Classic Rock 96-9, classic rock depending within Bowling Green, VA), WTVR-FM 98.Ace (Lite 98, grown coeval), WDYL-FM 101.1 (Y1Ace, modern rock), WRXL-FM 102.1 (102.1 the X, modern rock), and WMXB-FM 103.7 (Mix 103-7, soft adult contemporary). Urban contemporary stations include WCDX-FM 92.1 (Power 92), WKJS-FM 99.3/105.Seven (Kiss FM), & WBTJ-FM 106.Quintet (A Beat). Oldies are heard on WBBT-FM 107.3/100.Tercet (Oldies 107.Trine). Alternative stations include WDCE-FM 90.5 (University of Richmond student-run station) & WRIR-LPFM 97.3 (sale-power [http://www.wrir.org/ Richmond Indie Radio]). Country music stations are WKHK-FM 95.Trey (K95) & WJZV-FM 93.I (93.Single A Wolf, united states mixed by having Southern rock). Variety hits can be heard on WWLB-FM 98.Nine (98.Nina from carolina Liberty). Christian and gospel music can be encountered in WJYJ-FM 90.Phoebe (Fredericksburg), WPZZ-FM 104.7 (Praise 104.Septenary), & WYFJ-FM 100.One (BBN affiliate). A NPR public radio station is WCVE-FM 88.9. More stations in the Richmond vicinity include WAUQ-FM 89.Sevener (American Family Radio affiliate), WHCE-FM 91.1 (Henrico County student-run station), & WZEZ-FM 101.V (Standards).

There are besides many AM stations serving a kind of music, talk, and sports topics, including WGGM-AM 820 (Religious), WRNL-AM 910 (Sports), WXGI-AM 950 (ESPN Sports), WLEE-AM 990/1340 (Gospel), WRVA-AM 1140 (50,000 watts, News/Talk), WGCV-AM 1240 (Gospel), WDZY-AM 1290 (Radio Disney), WVNZ-AM 1320 (Spanish "La Selecta"), WVBB-AM 1380 (Religious), WHAN-AM 1430 (Business news), WCLM-AM 1450 (Soul oldies), WTOX-AM 1480 (Hot Talk) WREJ-AM 1540 (Gospel), and WFTH-AM 1590 (Gospel).

Radio ownership around Richmond is concentrated inside quaternion national corporations: Clear Channel (WRVQ-FM, WTVR-FM, WRXL-FM, WBTJ-FM, WRNL-AM, WRVA-AM) Cox Radio (WKHK-FM, WKLR-FM, WDYL-FM, WMXB-FM), Radio One (WCDX-FM, WKJS-FM, WPZZ-FM), & Davidson Media (WLEE-AM, WVNZ-AM, WTOX-AM). The newly company, Maaround Line Broadcasting, owns WBBT-FM, WJZV-FM, & WWLB-FM, getting purchased the babies in September 2005.

Parks and outdoor recreation
A city operates one of a oldest municipal park systems in the united states. A park body began while a city council voted around 1851 to acquire Seven.Quintuplet estate, at present referred to as Monroe Park. Now, Monroe Park sits adjacent to the Virginia Commonwealth University campus and is one of extrthe than Xl parks comprising a number of to a higher degree 1,500 acres.

s are seen on a James throughout the season.

There are likewise parks in ii major islands in the flow of any stream: Belle Isle and Brown's Island. Belle Isle is the larger of the deuce, & contains numerous bike trails also as a little drop that is utilized for rock climbing instruction. Dark brown's Isl& occurs as little isl& and the popular venue of the prominent total of loose outdoor concerts and festivals in the spring and summer, such as a hebdomadally Friday Cheers concert series or even a James Flow of any stream Beer & Seafood Festival.

Both more major parks in the city come Byrd Park and Maymont Park, located touching a fan district of Richmond. Byrd Park features the of these mile going track, by having exercise blocks, the public dog park, and the total of little streams, lakes, and wells throughout for microscopic boats, when well as ii monuments & an ampitheatre. Conspicuously featured in the park is the World War I Memorial Carillon, built in 1926 as a memorial to those that died in the war. Maymont Park, situated adjacent to Byrd Park, occurs as One c acre (400,000 m²) Victorian estate with the museum, formal gardens, native wildlife exhibits, nature center, carriage collection, and youngsters's domestic & petting zoo. A Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens are also situated in the city.

More parks in the city include Bryan Park (sustaining its numerous azalea gardens), Outdoors Hill Park (previous places of the Woods Hill Amusement Park), Chimborazo Park (places of the National Battlefield Headquarters), among others.

Sports
Richmond doesn't keep around any major league, sales person sports teams. Even so, there are many minor league teams. A city is the front yard of the Richmond Braves, a minor league baseball team (the farm club of the Atlanta Braves). A Braves play at The Diamond. A Richmond Kickers, a minor league association football team play at a University of Richmond Stadium. A Richmond Bandits are a minor league eleven, & a Richmond RiverDogs represent the city in the United Hockey League.

A Richmond Coliseum is also the residence of the Richmond RiverDogs hockey team, besides as a prominent total of concerts, festivals, & trade shows.

Car racing is besides super popular in a area, & the Richmond International Raceway also hosts two annual NASCAR Nextel Cup races, when well as a Virginia State Fair & more community & sporting cases.

Colonial Downs, located in nearby New Kent County also features a total of horse racing cases, including a Virginia Derby.

Due to the close proximity to Washington, DC and North Carolina, many Richmonders have a hard identity using broker, major even league teams in the Wa metropolitan area, or Charlotte, North Carolina. As well, by owning several major colleges around Virginia, there are many fans of the University of Richmond Spiders or a Virginia Commonwealth University Rams, when well as fans of the nearby University of Virginia Cavaliers and Virginia Tech Hokies.

Economy
Richmond's strategical locatiin on a James Flow of any stream, built on undulating hills at a jumpy fall line separating the piedmont and tidewater regions of Virginia provided a natural places for the development of commerce. For centuries, a native peoples of the mighty Powhatan tribe recognized the value of this page, rich within natural beauty. It knew it as a place to hunt, fish, play, & trade, & it known as it "Shocquohocan,", or even Shockoe.

A number one European explorers came inside 1607, from a Virginia Company of London. It found the fragrant weed grown per indigen, & tobacco became a remunerative trade good in the area. the country store developed into a village, & by 1733 a town was laid out by William Byrd II and William Mayo. Its early buildings were clustered in a Farmers' Market, existing now at 17th Street.

Early trade grew quickly, primarily in the agriculture sector, however as well in the slave trade. Slaves were imported to Richmond's Manchester docks from either Africa, were bought & sold at a equivalent market.

To help a transport of load from either a flat-flat-bottom bateaux above the Fall line to the ocean-faring ships beneath, George Washington helped design a Kanawha Canal in the 1700s to bypass Richmond's rapids. A canal was late superseded by rail the 1800s, and a railroads were placed on the original canal towing path. In the 1900s highways were constructed in a air above the equivalent locality.

Throughout these triplet centuries & tercet modes of transport, downtown has universally been a hub, using the Awesome Turning Basin for boats, the world's single triple crossing of railway line, & a intersection of ii major interstates.

Richmond emerged from either a smouldering detritus of the Civil War as an economic powerhouse, with cast-iron front buildings & massive brick manufacturing plant. Innovation of this era involved the world's number 1 cigarette-rolling machine & the world's number one successful electrical street car technique.

Relieved slaves & their descendant created the thriving African-American business community, led by such influential people as Maggie L. Walker and John Mitchell, Jr. The city's historic Jackson Ward became known as the "Wall Street of Black America."

Law & finance keep close at hand hanker been camping forces in the economy. Richmond is one of a merely cities to exist as a at home of two a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a Federal Reserve Bank, Many downtown office buildings today house major law firms, banks, and brokerages.

Around 2005, [http://www.forbes.com Forbes Magazine] ranked a Richmond locality when a #14 Right Place for Business & Careers, primarily due to its extremely educated labor pool & comparatively moo business costs. More areas of the economy that keep close at hand developed recently in the city include pharmaceutic, insurance, advertising, biotechnology, education, touristry health services, or even semi-conductors.

A Richmond Metro front yard is besides a at home of 7 Fortune 500 companies, including electric utility Dominion Resources; consumer electronics retailer Circuit City, which also spun off a utilized car retail merchant Carmax, now the separate Fortune 500 company; Performance Food Group; LandAmerica Financial Group; Owens & Minor; and the Brink's Company, a security services outfit. Genworth Financial, the previous insurance arm of GE, also has its headquarters on this button.

More Fortune 500 companies, while non headquartered in the area, launder have a major presence on text. These include Wachovia Securities (based inside Charlotte, North Carolina), SunTrust Banks Incorporated (based within Atlanta, Georgia), credit card professional Capital One Financial Corporation (based around McLean, Virginia), & a medical exam and pharmaceutical McKesson Corporation (based around San Francisco, California).

Philip Morris USA (a section of Altria Group), one of the world's largest food, beverage, and tobacco companies, maintains their corporate headquarters in Henrico County just outside the city, & has many more facilities in the area. Universal Corporation, also in the tobacco industry, has its corporate headquarters here too.

DuPont also maintains a production facility called a Spruance Plant, & Infineon Technologies has a facility placed at Elko Tract (a previous WWII airfield and ghost town) near Richmond International Airport, and garden truck DRAM memory in the area.

Richmond is too residence to the quickly getting [http://www.vabiotech.com/ Virginia Biotechnology Research Park], which opened in the 1990s as an incubator facility for biotechnology & drug company. Situated adjacent to the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, the park presently has to a higher degree 575,000 square feet (53,000 m²) of locate, laboratory & professional space for the diverse tenant mix of corporations, locate institutes, government laboratories & non-not-for-profit. A United Network for Organ Sharing, which maintains the united states's organ transplant waiting list, occupies a single building in the park. Philip Morris USA also recently announced their plans to build a $300 million search & development facility in the park also.

Richmond is too a front yard of the Ukrop's Super Market, a small, local, family-owned chain of supermarkets, known for its remarkable customer service and friendly employees, as well as its sponsorship of community events, such as the Monument Avenue 10K, Easter on Parade, and the Ukrop's Christmas Parade. A Ukrop personal has as well been criticized by occasionally for various conservative political actions, like inducing a ban in each GWAR playing concerts in Richmond & Howard Stern's show existence syndicated in local radio.

Around recent years, Richmond has been trying to revive its downtown environment, the run which has proven somewhat controversial at days. Recent downtown initiatives include the failing Sixth Street Marketplace & the proposal for a recently baseball bowl inside Shockoe Bottom.

Infrastructure
Government
The Virginia Capitol Building, designed by Thomas Jefferson Richmond city government consists of the city council with representatives from nine territory serving within the legislative and oversight capacity, as well as a popularly elective, at-heavy mayor serving as head of the executive branch. Citizens within every of the nine dominion elect 1 council representative for each one to serve the both-biennial term. A city council elects from either among itself of these member to serve when Vice-Mayor (Council President) & of these to serve when Assistant Vice-Mayor (Council Vice President).

Richmond's government antecedently changed from either the council-manager form of government to an at-large, popularly elective Mayor. In a period of the election, city manager Rudy McCollum was defeated by L. Douglas Wilder, who previously served Virginia as the first and only black governor.

When of the November, 2004 election, the Richmond City Council consists of: L. Douglas Wilder (Mayor), Manoli Loupassi (Vice Mayor, 1st District), Jacqueline M. "Jackie" Jackson (City Council Vice President, Eighth Dominion), William J. Pantele (2nd District), Chris A. Hilbert (Third Dominion), Kathy The. Graziano (Fourth Territorial dominion), E. Martin "Marty" Jewell (Fifth Zone), Ellen F. Robertson (Sixth Dominion), Delores McQuinn (7th District), and Eugene A. Mason, Jr. (Ninth Territorial dominion).

Education
the city of Richmond operates 31 simple schools, nine lycee, & eight highschool, using a worldwide student people of 25,000 students. On this text occurs as listing of Richmond City Public Schools. A adjacent counties of Henrico and Chesterfield also have a large total of public schools.

There are too many schools of higher education, including a University of Richmond (private), Virginia Commonwealth University (public), Virginia Union University (public) and a Union Theological Seminary & Presbyterian School of Christian Education (private). Many community colleges come observed in the tube region, including J. Sargent Reynolds Community College and John Tyler Community College.

Virginia State University is located astir Xx miles south of Richmond, in the suburban area of Ettrick, just outside Petersburg. Randolph-Macon College is located astir Fifteen miles northerly of Richmond, in the incorporated town of Ashland.

Transportation
Richmond is served per Richmond International Airport , located in nearby Sandston, seven miles southeast of Richmond and in an hour cause of historic Williamsburg, Virginia, RIC airport is served by heptad airlines by owning non-nonstop to Xxi destinations & copulative flights to destinations worldwide. Inside 2004, the drome served or so Deuce.Five million rider.

Intercity bus service is provided by Greyhound Lines. Local transit and paratransit bus service in Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield counties is provided by the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC).

Richmond likewise has deuce railroad terminal served by Amtrak. For each one station receives regular service from either either northward of Richmond from Washington, DC, Philadelphia, and New York. A suburban Staples Mill Road Station is placed in the major n-south freight line & receives tons service to & from either 100% points south including, Raleigh, Durham, Savannah, Newport News, Williamsburg and Florida. A historic & recently renovated Main Street Station near downtown Richmond single receives trains attached for Newport News and Williamsburg at this time, due to its track layout. Following, a Staples Mill Road station receives extra service overall.

Richmond likewise advantages from either an fantabulous position within information to the state's transport network, fabrication at a junction of east-west Interstate 64 and north-south Interstate 95, two of the virtually all heavy travelled main road in the state, too when along many major railway line.

Utilities
Electricity in the Richmond Metro area is provided by Dominion Virginia Power. A company, depending inside Richmond, one of a united states's big producers of energy, serving retail energy client around nine states. Electricity is provided in the Richmond vicinity primarily per North Anna Nuclear Generating Station and Surry Nuclear Generating Station, as well as a coal-fired station in Chester, Virginia. These triad plants provide the amount of 4,453 megawatts of power. Many more natural gas plants provide extra power in the period of days of peak require. These include the facility around Chester, in Surry, & two plants within Richmond (Gravel Neck and Darbytown).

Water is provided by the city's Department of Public Utilities, & is one of a big a water system producers around Virginia, with a modern plant that may handle as much as 132 million gallons of the body of water a day from either the James River.

Wastewater: The coarse of action plant & distribution formulas of water system system mains, pumping stations & storage facilities provide water to about 62,000 client in the city. A facility as well will bring a river to the encompassing vicinity across sweeping contracts by owning Henrico, Chesterfield, and Hanover counties. Overall, this final result around the facility that will bring h2o for or so 500,000 population. There exists too the effluent coarse of action plant placed on the to the south bank of the James Flow of any stream. This plant may handle as much as 70 million gallons of a stream by the day of healthful sewerage & stormwater prior to giving it to the flow of any stream. the sewer water utility as well operates & maintains 1,500 miles of healthful sewer, pumping stations, 38 miles of intercepting sewer main, & a Shockoe Retention Basin, a 44-million-gallon stormwater reservoir utilized in the period of heavily rains.

Telephone service for the Richmond area is provided by ii local exchange carriers: Verizon is the incumbent telephone company, and Cavalier Telephone occurs as competitive local exchange carrier.